At the end of a busy workday I love to pop an uplifting CD into the car stereo or listen to a local Christian radio station to unwind. Last evening, as I drove home, I listened to a radio program. The host of the program had a guest on the show that talked about what he called twisted doctrine. As I listened, it became obvious that the speaker was talking about doctrines that were created by twisting truth. The speaker was defending the doctrine, not the truth. As the program went on, the host asked the guest how the listeners could get more information. The guest recommended a book that he co-authored and additional books from what he called the early church founders. The Bible was not one of the books he recommended. The guest also never mentioned understanding received from the Holy Spirit. The guest was calling truth twisted doctrine and gave as references writings that twisted truth into doctrine.
Before I continue, it is only fair that I state that I am not a teacher of doctrine. My calling is to the mission given by Jesus Christ, to teach the gospel of the coming of the kingdom of God. If any doctrine is gleaned from the message, it is unintentional. The statement from the radio guest that doctrine is being twisted may be true, but it may also be unintentional. When someone is teaching truth to anyone believing doctrine, derived from twisted truth, it would appear that doctrine was being twisted. The believer of such doctrine would be starting from the doctrine; as such they would see the truth as a different twist on what they believe. If you twist a sponge, it would look different. If all you ever saw was the twisted sponge, you would think that is what a sponge was. If the pressure, that was holding the sponge twisted, was released and the sponge was returned to its true state, you could see it as twisted from the state you understood to be the sponge. Isn’t that was Jesus came to do, release the pressure that religious leaders had put on people by twisting truth into doctrine?
If you want to learn truth, you cannot do so by reading books based on the doctrines of man. Doctrines that describe repetitive rituals may have been founded with good intentions, to teach truth. But attempts to rigidly follow doctrine can give one a feeling of righteousness and hide the truth that Jesus is our righteous. Grace is truth. Truth twisted doctrine says, yes you are saved, but now you have to do these steps in this order to really be saved. Truth twisted into doctrine implies that Jesus saves but that is not enough now you must also save yourself. It is impossible for you to save yourself. Paraphrasing the writing of Isaiah, Jesus said, “In vain they worship Me. Teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.”
Teachers of twisted truth love to quote Paul’s second letter to Timothy. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine.” But they will scarcely continue reading and add to the quote. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” So shall we believe the teachers of doctrine that gives to us rabbits that lay eggs and a nonexistent fat man that gives gifts? Do those things sound like truth or fables? What about Christian doctrine that teaches mythology’s tales of hell? Where does the doctrine of the Sunday Sabbath come from? Is it a commandment of God or of man? . “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,” but a lie is a lie even if you call it doctrine.
Jesus is our salvation; that is truth. Jesus is our righteousness; that is truth. Jesus saves us from our sins; that is truth. Jesus purifies us and we are acceptable to God; that is truth. God sent to us the Holy Spirit; that is truth. We are able to communicate with (speak to and hear from) God; that is truth. We are to love one another; that is truth. Doctrine cannot save us; that is truth. Myths and lies cannot save us; that is truth. Observances of days and weeks cannot save us; that is truth. In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, Paul added to “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine” with, “for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” What is righteousness? Jesus Christ is righteousness. The Scripture that Paul was speaking of was not the Bible we read from today, but the statement is still true. The Scriptures are fit for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction to bring us to Jesus Christ. We cannot find Jesus Christ with fables or doctrines that teach that we are our own salvation. There is proof of Jesus in the Scriptures and in the observances taught in the Old Testament. Jesus came to bring to us salvation and a peace that cannot be understood.